Question from member wishing to remain anonymous

[almitywife]

Originally Posted by fairybasslet
There is another scuba related board whose TOS forbids sock puppets. Yet the mods and owners of that board have sock puppet identities ....

i once outted myself in the back room when i found out i had a sockpuppet... it must have been a very early signup a long time ago that i forgot about (and not much of a sockpuppet because if someone like Fairy or El saw it they would KNOW by user name it was me!)

from a personal point of view..... ive always found that SB'ers have great BS detectors and usually sniff out anything not legit

cheers

 

[Kim]

What is Scubaboard's policy on dive ops/resorts creating fraudulent Scubabord profiles and posting un-objective, dishonest advice and recommendations on Scubaboard? <snip>

I'd also like to invite members to weigh-in with their opinions on what ScubaBoard's policy should be.

100% zero tolerance.

This can be hard to achieve though, by the very nature of deceit and dishonesty.
Still - I firmly believe it should be the aim.

 

[Kim]

To be sure, there are certain policies in place when this happens. However, I am with Ann Marie here... I would like to hear what my fellow ScubaBoardians would like us to do with these individuals when they are ferreted out.

Get rid of them.

They do you no good whatsoever, or the rest of the members who are honestly seeking real information.

While I can see that "handles" and anonymity are suitable for private individuals, as soon as that enters the arena of business I believe that changes. If you want to keep your business affiliations private....don't advertise. If you want to advertise...be prepared to be absolutely honest about who you are.

 

[Missdirected]

I'd also like to invite members to weigh-in with their opinions on what ScubaBoard's policy should be.

Let the people of the board sort it out. The "trader rating" seems to be working quite well. If someone is suspect then perhaps an extra eye could be kept on their their thread. Otherwise, allow the members to decide who stays and who goes, if you will.

 

[The Chairman]

Fairy, Am I to assume you don't think the SB mods have sock puppets? :huh:

make no doubt about it... SB Mods have sock puppets. Quite often we need to see the Board as YOU see it, or we need to test out some feature. My sock puppet is actually named, er SockPuppet. We don't allow the use of sock puppets by mods for nefarious purposes and at least one has been removed as a mod for that very reason.

 

[herman]

To be sure, there are certain policies in place when this happens. However, I am with Ann Marie here... I would like to hear what my fellow ScubaBoardians would like us to do with these individuals when they are ferreted out.

I love the fact we have businesses on the board who are open and above board about who they are. I can think of several who have added greatly to the board and to the diving community in general. It's good for the dive community and the businesses but any business or person who joins the board solely for the purpose of trashing another business or deceptively hyping their own business should be exposed as to who they are and OPENLY thrown off the board. If they are willing to use deceit and dishonestly either promoting their own business or trashing others we deserve to know who they are, so we can avoid doing business them.

 

[BTravlin]

I love the fact we have businesses on the board who are open and above board about who they are. I can think of several who have added greatly to the board and to the diving community in general. It's good for the dive community and the businesses but any business or person who joins the board solely for the purpose of trashing another business or deceptively hyping their own business should be exposed as to who they are and OPENLY thrown off the board. If they are willing to use deceit and dishonestly either promoting their own business or trashing others we deserve to know who they are, so we can avoid doing business them.

I agree completely. Humiliate them publicly and loudly. Featured post of the day maybe? Sticky for a month?

 

[El Orans]

Fairy, Am I to assume you don't think the SB mods have sock puppets? :huh:

make no doubt about it... SB Mods have sock puppets. Quite often we need to see the Board as YOU see it, or we need to test out some feature.

I prefer to think of it as my test user: El Orans' Evil Twin.

 

[trucker girl]

What is Scubaboard's policy on dive ops/resorts creating fraudulent Scubabord profiles and posting un-objective, dishonest advice and recommendations on Scubaboard? Particularly, recommendations for their own dive op/resort, that are posted under the guise of being a helpful diver/Scubaboard member, not an owner or employee of the dive op.

You can't just assume that all dive ops/shops are trying to be deceitful. I mean, what if that's their actual opinion? Just because they are morons, doesn't mean they're being deceitful. There is a reason they carry it in their shop, right? (I'm not saying that all dive shops give honest opinions, either- so please don't anybody slam me on that).

I mean, does SB just ban people with no warning? Or is there a 3 strikes-type rule? Once a dive shop is outed, do you PM the guy/gal and tell him/her that it's in his/her own best interest to acknowledge their status as an op/shop? How many slashes can I fit in a sentence, anyway?

If the person is making recommendations, I don't see how it can be harmful if they don't say "I recommend this because I sell it and you should buy it from me so I make money off of you." Other SBers are going to make other recommendations. An opinion is an opinion- whether its from the guy who owns the shop or from the guy who shops there.

If the person is slamming other ops/shops, then that's a problem that really needs to be addressed. Maybe the other op/shop deserves to be slammed. But an op/shop should probably show restraint and let others who don't have a vested interest make the call.

Me, I have no responsibilities here whatsoever. Anyone want to give me the power to ban? I'll ban 'em all!

(seriously, on my own dinky little message board, we try not to ban- unless someone posts porn links etc- but sometimes you have to strong arm a bad member for the good of the board).

Doubt if I've been any help- I'm only on my first cup o' joe.

 

[Damselfish]

Some people are deceitful and deserve what they get. But sometimes there are people representing a business in some way that are simply net-clueless. It doesn't occur to them that they should make their affiliation clear, and they probably don't even know how. Someone like that, I think a little education is in order - why it is in their and everyone's best interest to say who they are, and how they can use the features of the board to do this.


Business affiliated people that give well intentioned but lousy advice because they are overly enthusiastic or biased about their product/place and can't help themselves, or clueless in general - that's an entirely different problem, however they represent themselves.